SailNet Community banner
  • SailNet is a forum community dedicated to Sailing enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about sailing, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, repairs, reviews, maintenance, and more!

Female ASA Instructors?

12K views 48 replies 26 participants last post by  nolatom 
#1 ·
Here's the deal... My wife and I took ASA 103 and 104 last year. I passed both. She only passed the 103. She and I both think this is because the instructor had a kind of "macho" attitude and really wasn't very good at teaching a woman.

This experience somewhat put her off on sailing. The good news is that a month or so ago we did a week long charter in the BVIs and my wife enjoyed it very much. On the last day, she actually suggested that we do some tacking back and forth, just so that she could practice. (FYI, she handles the helm most of the time, while I work the sheets, winches, docklines, etc.)

I think she would like to try again to get her ASA 104 certification, but it would definitely be necessary to find just the right instructor. I'm thinking she would be most open to a woman instructor--or at the very least a man who had a good reputation for teaching women.

So, any suggestions? By the way, we are located in the Tampa, FL area.

Thanks!
 
#2 · (Edited)
http://www.womanship.com/

Learn to sail with Her Ladyship Sailing, offering women sailing courses in Annapolis, the Florida Keys, the Bahamas and more!

FWS
Wix.com TEST SITE 1 created by gloriadavis based on Color and Co | Wix.com
The Florida Women's Sailing Association

Founded in 1973 to promote and encourage the growth of women's sailing groups along the West coast of Florida, the FWSA functions to:

Encourage the sport of womens interclub yacht racing
Foster and encourage social fellowships pertaining to all things nautical between member clubs and similar associations
Improve communication between clubs
Forward and advance sailing in all its phases through education and sailing clinics
Promote and coordinate interclub, match team racing and other sailing events for and between its members under uniform rules.

Currently there are eleven member clubs with more than four hundred women racing once a week in their respective sailing clubs on the Florida West Coast. Membership is open and we welcome additional sailing clubs.
 
#3 ·
I don't have a suggestion for a teacher for you, but I do hope your wife hangs in there. It's a very good sign that she's asking to expand her skills. Kudos to you for being patient (as far as I can tell from your post) and encouraging. I've had to ask couples to separate in my nav classes because they can't get along to draw a course on a chart. Heaven knows how they get along on a boat.

Best of luck to her!
 
#5 ·
I don't know if you are still looking and are willing to travel but there is a woman that owns a school in the San Francisco Bay Area. She even wrote the book on it. She was one of the authors of the latest ASA sailing manuals. Her classes are also fairly well prepared the ASA 104 is 3 days as opposed to a 2 day 103/104 combo.

Our Crew

You can make a vacation out of it and sail on the bay, maybe watch the America's Cup boats.
 
#6 ·
Does Offshore Sailing School in St. Pete, Ft. Meyers or Captiva have any female instructors? Or, is that where you took your lessons?

Funny anecdote. When my wife first learned to sail, I went along. It was great, by the way. The instructor was definitely a bit of a hard a$$. A very good instructor, but we both recall that after he gave an instruction and you complied, he always said "thank you". However, the tone always came across like "F---- you". Still, she learned a lot and even references that he taught her to do things a certain way to this day.

Anyway, during the course, rather than buckle, she took it on. She volunteered to be the one to grind up the main halyard every time. She was not going to be intimidated. Very proud of her. It's just me she doesn't want telling her what to do. :)
 
#8 ·
Does Offshore Sailing School in St. Pete, Ft. Meyers or Captiva have any female instructors? Or, is that where you took your lessons?
Offshore Sailing School, a US Sailing (not ASA) affiliate, DOES have female sailing instructors (currently, there is at least one full-time female instructor). However, I do not believe that they have a class that is only for women.

I know of at least one ASA affiliate school in Rhode Island that offers a Women-Teaching-Women program for ASA courses, and marine diesel and elecrical. PM me if you want details.
 
#7 ·
#10 ·
Please encourage your wife to join the Women Who Sail Facebook group. When my wife and I took our ASA classes, she had a similar experience to the one your wife had; and more, found herself being reminded that men and women learn things differently. Guys push the button and just see what happens; women want a lesson on what is going to happen before they push the button. That's my wife's metaphor, btw, and she'll be the very first point out that it's far from a universal truth and neither approach is somehow superior.

Back to topic, she found many women on that Facebook group who think like her, and that made her feel so much better. And there she has found the perfect (or so she's convinced) female instructor to to the lessons over again. I can't tell you her name, because I don't remember. But she's based in Boston, I think, though spends a lot of time in the Bahamas.

A bit of a ramble, sorry - your wife is not alone, and there is a quite large support group waiting there for her. And that will include recommendations on the very best, geographically appropriate, women instructors.
 
#13 ·
Thought I would follow up, since I first posted this almost three years ago.

My wife has not had any follow-up lessons, and she is okay with that. She has been learning from me, and we have been learning together. She may not have the official certification, but she has become an extremely competent sailor.

We have done a number of bareboat charters in the Bahamas, the USVI and BVI, and around Florida. She is now quite comfortable with sailing, and with taking charge when she needs to. Comfortable enough that for our next charter we are talking about a one-way from St. Lucia to Grenada.
 
#15 ·
Call me cynical but I am not sure there are that many Male Chauvinist Pigs still out there, especially in a business that smiles on customers "graduating." Was it the written she failed or the practical? Did the instructor point out her shortfalls and where to practice to get them up to spec? I would go to another facility and ask to challenge the exam on whatever instructor they have.
The more I sail the less I see it being a "man's world." You can give me a skipper that knows what they are doing any day. Or crew for that matter.
btw, I always let the admiral or any greenhorns take the helm as much as possible. It generates a lot of self confidence in the newbies and gets the Admiral prepared when or if I end up over the side!
 
#16 ·
Call me cynical but I am not sure there are that many Male Chauvinist Pigs still out there...
Call me pragmatic, but it doesn't make any difference at all how MANY there are. When you run into one, it can ruin the experience. At that point, the fact that (in your opinion) there are fewer than there were in the past doesn't make any difference at all!
 
#20 ·
A tongue-in-cheek term of endearment which elevates their wife to a position of leadership above their own is chauvinistic?

I admit I had to look up the definition of chauvinistic to make sure I haven't been mistaken in it's meaning my whole life, but how is saying one's wife gets the final say when it comes to all things boat related is "displaying excessive or prejudiced support for one's own sex?
 
#31 · (Edited)
I agree with "should play no role" but, all to often, that's not the way things actually happen.

I don't agree that this is a "BS request" for a woman to make. If a female student ismore comfortable with a female sailing instructor, that is her prerogative.

.
 
#33 ·
It's valid to want a female teacher.

My teacher for 103 and 104 was a woman named Vicki with Northern Breezes Sailing School. She teaches on Lake Superior in the summer which doesn't really fit your "warm, sunny climate" requirement, but teaches in the Caribbean in the winter. I'm not sure if she does 114.

British Virgin Islands, Caribbean, St. Martin Sailing
 
#34 ·
I don't deny sexism exists. I don't think we should nourish it. Any teacher who is sexist should be dismissed. I know some incredible female sailors... one was a teacher too. What you want is a good teacher and that has nothing to do with gender. Same applies to crew.... I don't care what the gender is... I do care about competence and compatibility.
 
#35 ·
SanderO, you're totally right, and also totally wrong (IMO).

While it's true that gender should play no role, it's also the case that many sailing instructors are not properly equipped with the right emotional, cultural, and pedagogical tools to instruct people who come from a significantly different cultural background than they do. (In other words, many sailing instructors are sexist, racist jerks.)

It is, given the state of sailing culture, extremely unlikely that a woman would become a sailing instructor without developing the tools to handle folks of backgrounds different than her own, and thus should be better equipped. It's an unfortunate request, but also sadly not BS.

I'd suggest that sailing schools that employ women and non-white folks might be better places to learn than ones that are homogenous.
 
#37 ·
SanderO, you're totally right, and also totally wrong (IMO).

While it's true that gender should play no role, it's also the case that many sailing instructors are not properly equipped with the right emotional, cultural, and pedagogical tools to instruct people who come from a significantly different cultural background than they do. (In other words, many sailing instructors are sexist, racist jerks.)

It is, given the state of sailing culture, extremely unlikely that a woman would become a sailing instructor without developing the tools to handle folks of backgrounds different than her own, and thus should be better equipped. It's an unfortunate request, but also sadly not BS.

I'd suggest that sailing schools that employ women and non-white folks might be better places to learn than ones that are homogenous.
I don't know what sort of people sailing instructors are these days. When I took the Steve Colgate class the teacher was a perfect gentleman and this was not even an issue. I took the course with my wife back in 1985.

Where do you get the idea that most male sailing instructors are sexist pigs?

Ask Joe Cooper....
 
#38 ·
It’s not a matter of instructors being sexist pigs, it’s more subtle than that.

A man can be a “perfect gentleman” but still talk down to women without realizing he’s doing it. He may unconsciously think that women are less knowledgable or less capable, and although he doesn’t realize he’s thinking that and would certainly deny it, it could still affect the way he teaches.

And of course many men are not that way.

But if you’re looking at spending several thousand dollars to take lessons from someone for a week, instead of playing the odds that you get a good male I think a person is within their rights to seek out a female instructor.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top